Promised Love

25. Done and Dusted?

At about two in the afternoon a text message from Abhimanyu comes in.

Husband : The terrace at eight. I've invited both our sets of parents. Let's get this over with.

I send a simple thumbs up but the conflicting emotions inside me are not as simple at all. How will they react? But I don't really have time to give that a second thought as of now. I have a deadline of submitting an article on Marital Rape, a hush hush topic in India, for next month's issue.

As my hands move effortlessly on the keyboard a thrill comes over me. I have always been passionate about topics that challenge the world, and about raising my voice for the right things in politics and social issues. So it's a breath of fresh air to finally be writing something that has actually has a purpose instead of celebrity gossip and fashion fails.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely do not look down upon people who read and write that sort of a thing. It is also a form of print media and it's good for whoever is passionate about those topics.
But in my case, when I got admission IIMC, I had stepped there with a lot of hope and dreams. I participated in a lot of debates, online writing competitions and basically had the time of my life standing up for what I felt was right and raising my voice against unjust things.

So when finally the placement day came and I very very unfortunately messed up my interview with JBB news which was my dream news channel to work for, I was so upset I cried for hours. Obviously I didn't end up getting an offer letter from JBB but I did get into a couple other news sites and ofcourse also into Scarlet. At that time I took this offer since it paid the best.

But now do I regret my decision? Yes.

Infact there has never been a lack of enthusiasm from my side. Last year I had applied to a bunch of media houses whose expertise was in political news but after you get a tag from a magazine like Scarlet that focuses on fashion and lifestyle content, most media houses stereotype you and don't prefer that candidate. I still do try to apply but the respose is meagre.

Scarlet is great in its own right. Its the leading women's magazine in India, my work pays well and there is a great working environment but the kind of material they publish is not my cup of tea.

After I finish typing the last para, I the read through the article to check for any spelling or grammatical errors. Once I have edited the whole thing and it looks as perfect as it can get I email it to the printing team to publish it in next month's issue.

Scarlet's next month's issue is called "bINDIA: being a woman in today's India". The issue is going to be addressing social issues woman face. It's something we or any woman magazine has never tried to do before, but Varun Singh, my boss and our content head is nothing if not a risk taker. When he shared the idea with the marketing team they were also kind of apprehensive but he somehow managed to get them on board with the idea. And hence this is the next month's issue is. Obviously it will have two three pages of celebrity gossip and hot fashion as well but those things are not going to be the highlight this time.

I am more than excited for this issue to be published. I have a strong feeling that this is going to be a game changer and will have a great impact. And hopefully, my resume might as well get a little more intrest from media houses like JBB after this article.

Now that this done, I have a new thing to worry about. Why did Abhimanyu call me to the terrace? Are him and Shanaya finally going to get rid of me and push me down and stage it like a suicide. That's a good possibility if you ask me.

*******

"Mom? Dad?" I call out in the dark living room but get no response. It's eight at night and I just returned from work.